X hit with $140 million fine from the EU

"The European Commission has fined Elon Musk's X €120 million (around $140 million) for breaching its transparency rules under the Digital Services Act. The European Union's executive arm that it was investigating the social media company's blue checkmarking verification system - first introduced when it was still known as Twitter - last year, along with other alleged DSA violations. Today's concerns the "deceptive design" of the checkmark, as well as "the lack of transparency of [X's] advertising repository, and the failure to provide access to public data for researchers.""

"The Commission's issue with X's verification system is that where blue checkmarks were once something that Twitter that Twitter vetted, they can now be bough by anyone. According to the EU, this puts users at risk of scams and impersonation fraud, as they can't tell if the accounts they're engaging with are authentic. The EU has also ruled that X's advertisement repository employs "design features and access barriers" that make it difficult for good faith actors and the general public to determine the source of online ads and spot scams or threat campaigns."

The European Commission fined X €120 million for breaching transparency rules under the Digital Services Act. The breaches include deceptive design of the blue checkmark verification system, lack of transparency in X's advertising repository, and failure to provide qualifying researchers access to public data. Selling blue checkmarks is said to increase risks of scams and impersonation fraud because users cannot reliably identify authentic accounts. The advertising repository reportedly uses design features and access barriers that obscure ad content and paying entities. The restrictive data access practices are described as undermining research into systemic risks in the EU. X has 60 working days to respond.

Read at Engadget